86 replies to this topic

[PuffinGrandeur]

There is literally no good scientific explanation for Mobius. Everything dies out, and then we have the dinosaurs, and then the Ice Age, and then modern animals all EXACTLY like old Earth species except more humanoid or more colorful. Also there are new humans, and old humans, magic and chaos. To simply have the answer be "it was always this way" is fine. The second they called into question WHY these things existed, the whole bit fell apart.

[Gojira007]

The fundamental problem, as I see it, is that the only thing the "Future Earth" idea can really add to the story is something in the vein of a "Planet of the Apes"-style meditation on human fallibility; far from a bad idea unto itself, but can anyone really see it working well in the context of a long-form narrative about Sonic and co.? How would one even be able to give the idea the focus required to make it compelling without leaving Sonic and co. in the dust? I simply struggle to see how Mobius as Future Earth contributes anything to the overall story that's relevant to the characters.

And then, on the other side, I feel it takes something away from the story if Mobius is no longer its own world. For one thing, suspension of disbelief is made that much more difficult; nothing about the inherently absurd designs and physics of Sonic's world are made any more sensible by linking them to "our" reality. Like Puffin said, you can accept these things as internally logical on their own, but you can't afford to call 'em into question on our terms because NONE of it holds up to that mentality. But more importantly, doesn't Mobius lose a certain something if it's just "our world" in the far future? Isn't some of its unpredictable, unique nature harmed by that idea? I just never can groove to the concept....

[blue]

Mobius = Earth (Never liked the idea to begin with. I guess it explains the 'nationality' of certain characters,

It really doesn't explain the nationality of the characters. If Mobius is our world in the future then English and French should be dead languages.

I know I'm explaining the obvious, but they need to speak English or other human languages so we can know what's going on or else the comics would be unreadable.

I personally like Mobius being the future Earth. It may sound far-fetched, but it makes the most sense. I mean, how can sentient Earthling creatures evolve on a separate planet?

If Mobius was maybe an alternate Earth (like in Sonic X or the Fleetway series), the "seprate world" theory would probably make more sense. In fact, the early Archie issues state that Mobius takes place in an alternate reality. If this fact still applies to the current series, I don't see what the big issue is.

Also, if Earth = Mobius, would "Planet Freedom" be the Overlanders' name for the planet? Just a random thought.

You do have a point.

[furrykef]

That doesn't explain how specifically French Antoine is, though.

[RedAuthar]

Possibly that French is just a language there?

[zelchias]

Or barring that, that Antoine comes from a culture that is essentially French and his and his father's accent is the result of 'Translation Convention', rather then LITERALLY being French?

[RedAuthar]

No they call it French in some issues.

[zelchias]

Aah right, Vector even called Antoine 'French Fry' once...

[furrykef]

Still doesn't rule out translation convention, but I think overanalyzing this matter is way too silly.

[PuffinGrandeur]

You know, the one thing that Mobius being Earth could have done and NEVER did, was have ruins of the old world. I liked that in the OVA: it was cool seeing some ancient abandoned New York, as creepy dark relics of the past. But instead we just get convoluted sci-fi and massive continuity problems.

[zelchias]

They actually did show ruins, if only once; Old Megaopolis is hinted to be the remains of New York. Not that any of the implications of that were really elaborated upon... such as how the heck it ended up being called 'Megaopolis' in the first place.

Heck, just for fun I'm gonna come up with a story behind it; the primitive ancient Overlanders came across the ruins of New York and thought it the work of gods and thus dubbed it something in thier language that would eventually translate into Megaopolis, and it was by mimicking what they found in the ruins and later reverse engineering some of the tech that lead to thier advanced technology and how they came to model thier civilization.

BOom, in a single instance the influence of the distant past is shown in how it influenced the present time.

[Tennyo]

For me, and maybe this isn't that big of a deal to most people, but I HATE the fact that they ditched SatAM Robotnik back in the day. Did Sega force them to so that there would be room for "Eggman" so that the comics would be more like the games? :/

Maybe it's just because i'm not a huge fan of the game canon. :/

[LogiTeeka]

For me, and maybe this isn't that big of a deal to most people, but I HATE the fact that they ditched SatAM Robotnik back in the day. Did Sega force them to so that there would be room for "Eggman" so that the comics would be more like the games? :/

Maybe it's just because i'm not a huge fan of the game canon. :/

Actually, it was Penders' idea.

Back when the final story of "Endgame" was planned, it was originally intended that both Sally and Robotnik would die towards the comics' supposed "climax." The reason for this was because many of the writers at Archie believed that the series wouldn't last beyond the 50th issue.

[zelchias]

Hoo boy were they wrong there....

As for the Eggman thing, that may or may not have been a second to last minute change to Robotnik Prime coming back; at the time of he came back, SOnic Adventure had come out and more elements from the games (which now had an actual in game story and storyline) were being added, which may have contributed to the returned "Robotnik" being from another Zone and transferring into an Eggman Body. I heard tale that the writers werent' given all the details concerning Sonic Adventure's story, hence why the inevitable adaptation was such a clusterfuck and ended up causing the number of continuity snarls that it did. This is also the reason why Eggman's personality wavers in and out between blood chillingly evil and a more comedic sort like in the games.... by this point it was established that despite the early comics, Robotnik really WAS a supremely nasty piece of work, which now had to be reconciled with the fact that Eggman is kinda goofy (less so in the first two 'Adventure' games, but then much more so later on), and why he continues to bounce back and forth. Something I don't particularly appreciate, but its beyond my control.

[Gojira007]

Actually, it was Penders' idea.

Back when the final story of "Endgame" was planned, it was originally intended that both Sally and Robotnik would die towards the comics' supposed "climax." The reason for this was because many of the writers at Archie believed that the series wouldn't last beyond the 50th issue.

Well right, but this is Comics we're dealing with; they could've brought SatAM!Robotnik back as-is, as it looked like they were doing prior to the big reveal in #75 and as they in fact did for #108. Heck, they could've kept Robo-Robotnik in his SatAM-looking body instead of having him mind-jump to the Eggman model. I've never been TOO bothered by the transition, mind, just saying.

[blue]

For me, and maybe this isn't that big of a deal to most people, but I HATE the fact that they ditched SatAM Robotnik back in the day. Did Sega force them to so that there would be room for "Eggman" so that the comics would be more like the games? :/

Maybe it's just because i'm not a huge fan of the game canon. :/

I guess they knew that the SatAM Robotnik was outdated and changed into Dr Eggman's adventure design. By the way, it looks like the topic drastically changed but whatever.

[Tennyo]

Actually, it was Penders' idea.

Back when the final story of "Endgame" was planned, it was originally intended that both Sally and Robotnik would die towards the comics' supposed "climax." The reason for this was because many of the writers at Archie believed that the series wouldn't last beyond the 50th issue.

Well yes. Were we only supposed to discuss Ian Flynn?

I really don't have a preference for who is/was better.

[zelchias]

Indeed, this is for all that we considered the Stupidest stuff in Archie.

Here's another for me.

Extreme TEchno Stagnation; Okay, buying into the given origins of Mobius, this would mean that the humans of Station Square have been existing inside that mountain for 12,000 years, and in 12,000 years thier technology outside of the artificial environment has not advanced beyond what they had at the time of the Xorda War, nor that they explored much beyond thier home in that time in order for them to be a 'hidden city of the ancients'....I cannot begin to describe just how dumb this is, given the real life history of humanity and what we as a species accomplished in a 10,000 years.

[PuffinGrandeur]

Actually, while the "hidden city in a mountain" bit is extremely dumb, them stagnating is pretty much par for the course for hidden mystical cities. It could actually have been interesting had it been played with a bit more.

But it wasn't.

[zelchias]

A several centuries or several millenia of stagnation I could buy, but these guys had a mid-21st century technology base when things went to hell in a handbasket, and even accounting for the fact that they might have had to go through older phases of technological developement (what with said technology base likley breaking down eventually and thus requiring a period of something aking 19th century tech levels for a while), 12,000 years and the most of it being an artifical environment inside the mountain is just a bit much for me to swallow.